Sometimes modest commercial buildings can be deceiving, and this is the case with Sadler’s Drug Store. This simple single-story stone structure has been a hub of commercial activity for well over a century. It first shows up in Glen Rose photographs at the turn of the twentieth century, and it survived the devastating April 1902 tornado that destroyed much of the town. During its early years the building was the site of Sadler’s Drug Store and then the Glen Rose Drug Company. By the 1920s local entrepreneur James Edward Ward used it as a dry cleaning and tailor shop, renting out part of the space to Jake Howeth for a barbershop. By the 1950s Ward added services for distributing the Dallas Morning News newspaper to his business efforts. Then in 1960 he was elected to what became six terms in the Texas House of Representatives, and used the old structure as his legislative office. The J.D. Echols Cleaners succeeded J.E. Ward in the building, for a while sharing it with the Glen Rose Chamber of Commerce. To this day it remains an important commercial space on the busy southeast side of the courthouse square.